2006 September

How to promote classical music company for babies

9/26/2006 By Joan 9 Comments

Publicity Hound Adam Adelman of Fairfax, California writes:

“My wife and I have launched a company called Juno Baby and we’re an award-winning and critically-acclaimed premium creator of infant/toddler music and media.

“All of our original music was scored for and performed by actual orchestral musicians. All of the original music was written by my wife, Belinda, a Ph.D. in music composition and a classical music composer. Belinda decided to create a company that would introduce our daughter to true classical music.

“We are doing our own PR and are trying to come up with clever pitches/angles. I’m afraid just blanketing the press about a new company launch is not overly exciting. For this reason, we’d love to hear any ideas you or your readers might have for us.”

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, TV Publicity

Spinach crisis: Here are ways you can piggyback

9/26/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

News stories about the spinach-related E. coli outbreaks all over the United States offer lots of opportunity for savvy Publicity Hounds to piggyback onto this story.

Here are some ideas off the top of my head:

—What’s the effect on restaurants? Have they pulled spinach completely from their menus or are they using frozen spinach in place of the fresh stuff? Are restaurants reprinting menus?

—Are more people flocking to nurseries to buy spinach seeds, hoping to plant a crop before the first frost?

—How do you know if you’ve ingested food tainted with E. coli? What are the warning signs, and what should you do if you have the signs?

—Are supermarkets refunding customers’ money if they return bags of spinach to the stores?

—Are spinach distributors doing a good enough PR job during the crisis? PR people can submit op-ed columns to their trade magazines.

—If a cook is making a recipe that calls for spinach, what
greens are good substitutes? Chefs and restaurant owners can comment and offer recipes to food editors.

—Health officials in Canada aren’t recommending precautions
because they haven’t found any similar patterns of disease in
Canada. Even so, are consumers leaving spinach on the shelves?

—Are consumers in the U.S. afraid of buying any kind of bagged lettuce? Should they be? Health officials can comment.

The media love covering stories related to food. As I explained during the interview I did with Jaime Oikle called “Publicity Tips for Restaurants, Chefs & Foodies,” everybody eats.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Crisis Communications, Pitching the Media

Unsolicited press releases considered spam—but not by me

9/20/2006 By Joan 1 Comment

If you send an unsolicited press release, will journalists consider it spam?

Most probably won’t. But there’s an interesting conversation about this topic at the Poynter Online blog.

Amy Gahran, who calls herself a conversational media consultant and content strategist, says she flags unsolicited press releases as spam. I commented and said I love getting bad pitches and unsolicited press releases because I often use them as examples here and in my eine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” on what NOT to do.

Take a look at what some of the other journalists have to say.

Filed Under: Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity on the Internet

Press releases with a video clip come alive

9/19/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

An online press release that includes a video clip can be incredibly powerful.

Readers simply click on the video link and watch a short video of you extolling the benefits of your product or service. Here are other ways you can use video:

—Readers can watch you demonstrate a new product.

—They can see you interviewing a customer who has used your product successfully, and the customer can offer a testimonial.

—They can listen to you interviewing a keynote speaker who will be at your trade association’s annual convention. That little 3- or 4-minute clip might be just what you need to boost attendance.

Video can help you pull consumers into your sales funnel. Expertclick.com, the subscription-based service that matches journalists with experts and lets you post up to 52 press releases a year, is now letting subscribers add video to their releases. You can watch this short video of Mitch Davis of Expertclick explaining the new feature.

The video explains that you can also make money sending releases. You can “opt-up” to include your Google Adsense code so that you get paid for all the hits on the ads on your press releases and profile, or “opt-out” and have advertising-free pages.

Members can also include indexing by 39 key phrases for better search engine results. More multi-word key phrases help you connect with more journalists and ensure you are there when journalists search for your phrase. This is designed to give each member up to four times as much “cross-pollination.” After all, journalists like several sources on each story.

Expertclick is also adding an 18-month online planning calendar that will let you post your own events such as speaking engagements and teleseminars. The calendar will then be available to journalists. September 29 is last call for the 2006 discount pricing of $760. You’ll get another $100 off if you tell them The Publicity Hound sent you. The 2007 base rate, which includes 52 press releases a year, will be $995 for the Yearbook of Experts.

Call Expertclick at 202-333-5000 before the prices go up. If you still haven’t signed up for my free email course on how to write press releases, do it now. Don’t have 89 days to spend learning? Then get a great overview on this topic from the CD or electronic transcript called “The New Rules of Press Releases: How to Write Them for Journalists, Not Only for Buyers.”

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Information Products, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity for Niche Markets

Children’s book about divorce needs marketing tips

9/19/2006 By Joan 8 Comments

Author DK Simoneau of Lakewood, Colorado writes:

“I have written a children’s picture book, ‘We’re Having A Tuesday’ that focuses on the issue of divorce. It goes beyond the typical book that centers on divorce not being the child’s fault. Instead, it’s a communication tool meant to help children and adults discuss the frustrations of the ongoing lifestyle change of shuffling between two homes.

“I really believe this book needs to be out there for parents, teachers, therapists, pediatricians, and the like to bring the topic out for discussion. I’m wondering what other Hounds think might be some good ways to get the word out about this tool that could help so many children affected by this prevelent occurence in our society. I am open to ideas and suggestions.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers